I hate to sound like a broken record here, but STOP DOING THESE. They aren't getting better. You DON'T need to put in a joke or "easter egg" in every panel. Look at Penny Arcade for inspiration. You need a single joke and a focus on that joke... also the jokes you should use could be funnier. I'd rather have no comic strip than this bloated attempt.

Yeah, ok. Hey, thanks again. Good points one and all. Interestingly the first one done since you started offering me the same advice over and over again will be the one posted next week. Hopefully the next one will conform to the format you've had in mind. If it's awful you only have yourself to blame.

Penny arcade is a good suggestion. It probably would be wise to look at the most successful web comic ever. I probably should try to steal their jokes or whatever. Not sure what you're suggesting there. Actually, come to think of it, if you could throw together some material inspired by their jokes and some thumbnail drawings, well, that'd be great. You can go ahead and send them to me, and I'll give them a lot more thought than I have this reply.

Also, I guarantee your comments are more annoying for me than my comic is for you. So good work on the trolling front there buck-o. Hugs.

I knew I never should have started responding to these...

Non-submission strips start next week. Thanks for the silent support you sweet masses.

Dude! I have the solution for you, in caps you'll understand: STOP READING THESE.

There have got to be literally several other people out there who would love to have your expert and contradictory insights of "stop making things" and "make better things." Get out there and save the world!

PS: I'm trying to play a new high intelligence, low charisma/wisdom character. Got any tips for me?

Quite aside from being completely unfunny, it's forcing the front page (and this thread) to an unreasonable width, especially for laptop monitors. On my laptop it forces a horizontal scroll bar, a huge web design no-no; and even on my desktop machine, it makes the lines of text on the rest of the screen so wide as to cause readability issues.

Also? McTrebble's post may have been a little rude, but that was not what one would call a professional response.

Rude maybe, but true. Look, I have a right to criticise anything presented to me without having the ability to create in the same medium. Do you complain when a film or book does not satisfy, even though you're no filmmaker?

I only suggested looking to Penny Arcade as the gold standard. Obviously I don't want to see you stealing their jokes. What I was trying to suggest was that they hold onto one joke throughout one (or even sereral) strips, despite the fact that they know as many cute cultural jokes as you do. Yet they don't feel the need to clog every one of their frames with derivitives (TMAT@666, Sparkly Vampires), which ultimately short changes the joke at the end.

If I was really trolling, I would have offered no true criticism, but simply reinforced my displeasure. You asserted that, in light of previous commentary, you would improve them as you went along. You did not, in my opinion, improve. On the contrary... while people might not be as rude as I am, I don't hear anyone professing how good your comic is, how much they loved it. If I saw some of them, then maybe I'd point the finger back at me. At most, I've heard a few people say "I chuckled".

Here's the truth: You created a piece of art for people to see, hopefully enjoy, and ultimately scrutinize. You have a hard time handling that; but it doesn't mean I'm going to stop.

I really do hope you turn this around soon. But until you do, I will call you out.

I will soften my tone in the future. In hindsight, all caps was probably not the way to go on any part of my commentary.

I would like to weigh in on rude vs. critical. At no point did I openly use inflammatory language against the creator of the comic strip, nor did I attack the product without backing up my feelings using concrete observations. Again, using caps is tantamount to yelling, so that was not cool. I will continue to criticise, but will be more mindful in the future about how it is expressed.